Rail contractor gets nine years for track deaths

A railway contractor was yesterday sentenced to nine years imprisonment for the manslaughter of four maintenance workers who died when a runaway wagon ploughed into them at about 40mph.

Mark Connolly, 44, had deliberately dismantled the hydraulic brakes on two of his wagons to save money.

One of the wagons - fully laden with 16 tonnes of steel rail track - ran away down a steep slope and hit a group of rail workers near Tebay, Cumbria, two years ago. The wagon, weighing a total of 19 tonnes, came out of the morning darkness and hit the group as they worked on the west coast main line.

At Newcastle crown court yesterday Mr Justice Holland told Connolly that by deliberately disconnecting the hydraulic brakes he had caused the deaths of the four men. The judge said his actions had been motivated purely by greed to a "degree that beggars belief".

He added: "You have done your best to shift the blame on to other people, oblivious of the hypocrisy. You have never expressed any regret or offered any apologies for any part of it."

The judge said only a long term of imprisonment could be justified in such a "unique case of manslaughter".

Connolly, of Anglesey, north Wales, received a nine-year sentence for each of the four counts of manslaughter, to run concurrently. No separate penalty was imposed for three counts of breaching health and safety laws. He had denied all charges.

His co-accused, Roy Kennett, 29, was jailed for two years for manslaughter and breaching health and safety laws.

Speaking outside court, Detective Sergeant Steve Martin read a statement on behalf of all the families.

He said: "We have been unable to understand how anybody or why anyone would put on to the railway trailers which had had their brakes deliberately disabled."

Superintendent Alistair Cumming, of British Transport Police, who led the investigation, said: "Mark Connolly was a cowboy operator."